Over the past year or so I’ve been learning a lot about love. Only it didn’t end up being the lesson I thought it would be.
As is the case with a lot of us, I usually think of love in a romantic context. And certainly that’s a powerful example of love, but how often I forget that Bible tells us about several kinds of love, not just one.
For a good portion of the last year, I focused on the love I wasn’t getting. I kept focusing on unconditional love in dating relationship, but the greatest lesson God taught me ended up being the unconditional love I received from numerous friends and family members in my life. Love from people who stood right by my side through my own personal storm. They believed in me and the future God has for me even when i didn’t see it myself.
Without their support I wouldn’t be where I am today. It wasn’t the love I was focusing on, but it was the love I needed and I’ll never be able to put into words what their role in my life has meant, and will continue to mean.
That’s the lesson I’ve been learning over the latest chapter in my life. True love isn’t only found in dating. It’s found in being a reliable and empowering presence in someone’s life. Thanks to the people I’m lucky to have in my life, I know now more than ever what it means to be loved and what it means to love in return.